Washed Out - Life Of Leisure EP (Mexican Summer)

Every year, there are a variety of musicians and bands eager to provide us music geeks and dull romantics with a summer soundtrack. And with all that goes on: the festivals, the travelling, the beer; it’s the optimum environment in which to release a memorable and lasting record.

Just a month away from the season of hedonism, Washed Out’s Life of Leisure takes this to the next degree. Using his own equipment, Earnest Greene recorded his debut while staying at his parents place in Georgia. The result is an example of the effect that time, isolation and nature has on creativity. Life of Leisure is a complete experience: a package of well devised mood music wrapped in a DIY charm. Written during the summer for the summer, its sense of escapism could not have been realised during the pressure of his current tour.

Each track blends effortlessly together as one. Under four minutes long, their simplistic structure may be a downside but, overall, with the impression that ‘Get Up’ and ‘Feel it All Around’ leave behind, nothing feels more natural than to play it again and again. Rehashing the techniques laid out in the three tracks before it, ‘Lately’ takes this simplicity into the mundane and is the only duff track on the EP. It’s promptly forgotten when ‘You’ll See It’, with its ethereal groove and resonating euphoria concludes the record.

The 80’s keyboard pop and shoegaze fuzz are easy to detect but bizarrely nobody (except Greene himself) mentioned the obvious disco vibe. From the pulsing electro thuds in the bass, to the sibilance in the vocal harmonies (identical to the silky harmonies of 10cc’s ‘I’m Not in Love’), right up to the album cover; it all simulates a swirling heady high like no other. Comforting yet awakening, like cool water on hot skin; we know how the girl on the cover feels.

Without loosing itself too much in nostalgia, Washed Out harps back to a familiar and colourful rave innocence while capturing a piece of the zeitgeist. Look no further, your summer soundtrack is here. Original and sonically stunning, it’s a rare sparkle of a record – one that that could illuminate Greene’s career or, in its bright intensity, blind him from doing anything this good again.

(© Copyright 2010 Brendan Morgan)

Sennen - Destroy Us

In fear of falling into repetitive, zombified writing, I had made up my mind to quit reviewing any more ‘nugaze’ for a while. It lasted a couple seconds. We all have our addictions and Sennen from Norwich might have been my next love affair. But it wasn’t to be. They tick all the boxes but still leave a little to be desired. It’s awful when you discover that love isn’t blind.

The problem is that they lack a noticeable shade of colour to separate them from the prism of other rising dream pop acts. Destroy Us is more of the same post rock guitar layering and huffing and puffing, unable to move mountains as intended. Case in point: ‘The Distance from A to B’ climbs and climbs only to fall on an anti climax. It’s bathetic or, to lower the tone, like interrupted sex. If you want EPIC guitar crescendos then you’d be better off turning to the unsigned Dezerett, a Florida based trio that call down some biblical, God-like climaxes.

By track three the EP finds its feet. The earnest and well executed ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ is enough to rescue it from being forgotten in the caverns of itunes. Here, the drummer, James Brown, whose role is otherwise functional in the band, pulls his finger out and moulds the rhythms into more daring shapes. Pseudo-religious pop archaisms like “Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray” are nearly poetic when supported by the strong melody and Interpol style guitars. It’s then taken way too far on ‘Figurene’: a soupy, sad bastard that sounds identical to Christian pop (shudder).

During its better moments, Destroy Us displays amiable song crafting suggestive of The Chameleons and soft, creamy vocal harmonies that would complete a milkshake. Not lacking in emotion by any means, their ethos is untouchable. What brings them down is their manifestation of those deep thoughts. This problem could be mine however, as I just can’t shake off the pessimism that’s been shadowing me lately. It’s like Sennen say: “Is there anything left for us to destroy?”

(© Copyright 2009 Brendan Morgan)